in reply to Re: Perl Style: Is initializing variables considered taboo?
in thread Perl Style: Is initializing variables considered taboo?
Of course I use strictures in all my code! Why else would I be asking about variable initialization if I did not predeclare them?
The question was more on style (hence "Perl Style") and the fact that the pod for my in perlfunc does not specify if it actually initializes the variable to any specific value.
Nevertheless, after your response I discovered that perlsyn pod does under "Declarations" and quite extensively explains the initialization details. It seems that in a few cases it is wise to initialize, but not to undef, because as you say, it is just plain wasteful. Though IMHO I still think it just looks neater in the code, but shall refrain from doing so to undef in the future.
I have a faint memory that I picked up the practice many years ago from the Camel book (or PBP), and I think it states somewhere that it is good practice to always initialize variables, but I could be wrong... or maybe it's just an old habit from my background in C.
The question was more on style (hence "Perl Style") and the fact that the pod for my in perlfunc does not specify if it actually initializes the variable to any specific value.
Nevertheless, after your response I discovered that perlsyn pod does under "Declarations" and quite extensively explains the initialization details. It seems that in a few cases it is wise to initialize, but not to undef, because as you say, it is just plain wasteful. Though IMHO I still think it just looks neater in the code, but shall refrain from doing so to undef in the future.
I have a faint memory that I picked up the practice many years ago from the Camel book (or PBP), and I think it states somewhere that it is good practice to always initialize variables, but I could be wrong... or maybe it's just an old habit from my background in C.
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